Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham Review

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is a DC Elseworlds comic series by legendary Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, as well as writers Richard Pace and Troy Nixey, turned into an animated film. DC’s Elseworlds line of comics are alternate worlds similar to Marvel’s “What If…?”. The easiest way to describe Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is: what if Batman took place in the 1920’s and faced a Lovecraftian world filled with modified versions of recognizable Batman characters? The movie releases today, March 28th, 2023 on digital streaming services, Blu-ray, and 4k Ultra HD.

Watch the trailer here.

The screenplay is written by Jase Ricci, whose credits are in stark opposition to the content in this movie, the majority of which are more kid-focused content like Teen Titans Go and DC Superhero Girls, several spin offs of the Tangled movie, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Veteran Sam Liu, director of numerous DC animated films like Batman: The Killing Joke, Justice League: Gods And Monsters, and Batman: Gotham By Gaslight, co-directs with Christopher Berkeley. Berkeley also has many years of experience working with DC animated properties likes Young Justice, The Batman, and Teen Titans.

It’s incredibly challenging to fit a cohesive, well paced story into a 1 hour and 26 minute run time. Many DC animated movies have struggled with it, leading to pacing issues. DC’s recent animated film Legion of Superheroes is a prime example of struggling with what deserves screen time and what doesn’t. Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham overcomes this and is probably one of the best paced of DC animated movies. It’s always moving forward and not a minute of its runtime feels like it stalls. Unlike many animated films, it never feels like there one segment that is overly long and wasted space, and never feels exposition-heavy to fill time or reduce animation costs. Every DC animated movie going forward needs to learn from this movie and understand how to operate in that 90 minute movie window.

Regardless of being based on a good graphic novel, successful adaptations are not guaranteed, and a good screenplay is essential. Despite Jase Ricci’s primary experience with more youth focused projects, he successfully delivers on a mature project. We are transported to a dark, sad world, whose grim story feels perfectly adapted for film. The dialogue is never cheesy or overdone, and it wraps itself so well in a Lovecraftian cloak that it all fits naturally in this warped Batman world. The movie constantly conveys and connects the themes of dread and loss throughout, as well as the lengths we are willing to go, and how our pain effects us.

In Elseworlds tales, characters are recognizable but always skewed in unique and fun ways. For example, the Penguin is Professor Cobblepot, an explorer that goes missing during a mission to Antartica. He’s changed by a Lovecraftian horror, and even the actual penguins associated with “the Penguin” appear as grotesquely mutated monsters, too. Many characters appear in the film this way; they are recognizable characters who we’ve grown to love, but changed in both mild and extreme ways. This makes almost every new version of someone we know fun and interesting to see, almost like prominent Easter eggs.

Not all characters are close recreations. Some have aesthetic similarities, such as matching a distinctive look and powers, but with completely different names, back stories and motivations. A character that closely resembles Mr. Freeze’s powers and appearances shows up, yet has a completely different backstory and purpose. This is no mere retreading of material, so each familiar character can be surprising whenever they appear because we don’t know how much as changed.

The directing and cinematography is nearly faultless. Every scene captures the ominous feeling a Lovecraftian tale should have, and every moment feels well thought-out and put together. There’s nothing groundbreaking in its directing, but everything matches the highest quality DC animated movies, which is unsurprising given that Liu directed most of my favorite ones. That polish continues on to well directed voice acting, and great performances by numerous, moderately well known actors.

David Giuntoli, the lead actor from Grimm, returns in his second animated film as Batman, and nails the role so well I hope he reprises it in the future. Others like John DiMaggio of Futurama fame voices Jim Gordon, Christopher Gorham nails an emotional Oliver Queen, and Navid Negahban feels spot on as Ra’s Al Ghul. Every performance is solid and well cast, and none stand out as bad and take you out of the moment.

The special features section is quite limited; there is a commentary track, a 15 minute video about the themes of existential dread throughout the film, as well as a gallery. There are two other features of already released DC animated movies, and these previews have been used in other movie’s special features, so if you’re a regular viewer of DC animated movies and enjoy special features, you may be disappointed by the rehashed content.

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham has one the darkest stories of any DC animated film. It may turn out to be a divisive movie because no character is truly safe, which is appropriate to the genre, but most characters have dark fates that will surprise and sadden viewers. I also loved rare quality that Gotham isn’t just a setting but is more like a character with engaging story elements of its own. Given that it’s a one-off story and not canon in the mainline universe, the writers were able to go places canon properties would not and could not go. Guilt, destiny, and loss are common themes throughout the movie. Batman is also not as restrained by the morals of his canon version, so some may see it as a betrayal of the original character, but that’s what these Elseworlds stories do. A good Elseworlds story should surprise you and take you to different, even uncomfortable, places, and this film does that.

I recommend going into this film with an open mind and understanding that it is an enjoyable stand alone story that exists outside canon DC stories. As of right now Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham has easily earned a spot in my top three Elseworlds movies with the likes of Superman: Red Son and Batman: Gotham By Gaslight. If Elseworlds stories aren’t for you, you may enjoy Director Sam Liu’s more canon animated movies like Batman: Year One, The Death Of Superman or Justice League: Crises on Two Earths.